


The Things We Do For Family

by FallingStarlight (MorbidRobin)



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Magic, And drunken orgies, Cause what's a good story without some crack, Comedy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Or weirdness it's the username people., Sort of a Kyou Kara Maoh AU, but not really, frienemies to lovers, lots of h/c, mentions of polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 20:41:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10395651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorbidRobin/pseuds/FallingStarlight
Summary: A collection of standalone oneshots detailing the life and times of Ace who joins the Whitebeard Royal Family... as a reluctant bride.Possible MarcoAce, ThatchIzoOrThat fic that is sort of a Kyou Kara Maoh AU that no one really asked for, you know, the one in which Ace is Wolfram, Marco is Yuuri and the whole shebang.(You don't have to read Kyou Kara Maoh to understand this fic, though.)





	1. Prologue

It is said that the gates of Raftel,the city of the treasure of the Gol D. Roger, King of the Grand Line, can only be opened through one who has his blood running through their veins, through his descendants. It is said that the city is set upon a hill and is covered in snow, protected by giants, guarded by elves, masked in dragon magic. 

Rumor has it that all the spoils and riches of the Great King are hidden in that place. Riches so numerous numbers cannot begin to describe, a wealth so great to outlive ten generations. Persons, old, young, healthy, sick, with magic, without magic have ventured and journeyed into the mysterious Raftel and have never returned. They never live to tell the tale of the Mysterious Raftel.

When the King was alive, no one dared to enter that place. But on the day he was executed, and died unmarried and with no heir to his name, there was chaos and blood flowed through the streets of the Grand Line country as a treasure hunt began. 

If greed had a face to describe the spectacle, it would be a rather grotesque person on a throne of dead bodies. 

The people who had engineered his execution, the Gorosei, his opposition, a rivaling country who wanted to take over, had found that they had begun a fire that they couldn't control or fuse. They had open the pit of Armageddon itself, Pandora's box.

Out of the multitudes who only look out for number one, who swam in greed, lust and lies, there was a exception. One man rose and quelled the madness and destruction, became the King and restored the Grand Line Country to its glory days. 

He is commonly known as Whitebeard. Others called him Oyaji.

()

Unknown to many however, Gol D Roger had a heir. Forced to flee after his execution, his secret wife, Portgas D. Rouge did everything she could to keep her unborn child alive.

Even if it meant sacrificing her own life.

The child born was called Ace.

Portgas D. Ace. 

The Portgas clan were a distant relation of the Monkey clan and Ace lived with the Monkey clan like his own family. 

Left to his own devices, Ace became a bandit.

And his story begins...


	2. Chapter 2

The day was bright,the chirping of the birds was melodious. Thatch played no early morning pranks. Neither did Haruta. Izo wasn't complaining about his make-up or Marco's hideous sense of fashion. Ojayi was resting.

All in all, Marco was certain that nothing was going to wrong today.

Oh, how wrong he was.

()

_Once upon a time,a young Thatch and Haruta were bored._  
_That never spelt anything good._

_Bored as they were, they decided to visit a famous mermaid to see Marco's love life in the future._

_Madam Sharaly, cryptic as always, told them that whoever leaves a lasting scar on Marco would be his bride._

_Thatch and Haruta were puzzled. No one had ever been able to give Marco a injury less alone a scar._

_For Marco had a healing ability that earned him the nickname of The Phoenix._

_The rest of the family chalked it up to mean Marco was never getting a partner._

_Marco didn't mind. He had paperwork to do._

_No one really thought of the prophesy till now._

()

Portgas D. Ace, using his fire magic created a wall of fire to protect his fellow bandits. They may have not have cared for him much but he'll be damned if someone were to die on his watch.

Shaking off the exhaustion of fighting the Fishman Jinbei for five days straight, Ace prepared himself and launched at Whitebeard.

Only to be thrown like a rag doll. Whitebeard's tremor magic was not to be trifled with.

Ace got up and charged again.

And was promptly flung again.

The old King must be getting senile for he barked,

"Become my son!"

"Over my dead body!" And Ace charged again adrenaline coursing through him, increasing his fire magic...

Only to be blocked by the Phoenix. Angry, he thrashed in Marco's hold, his powers weakening. Ace grew desperate, clawing and biting.

  
It didn't affect Marco in the slightest.

Calling his inner fire dragon, Ace went for the final strike and bit and finally drew blood from Marco's neck.

Satisfied, he promptly faded into darkness.

Marco was left in shock, as he felt pain and blood flowing from his neck that simply refused to heal, his brothers stood there, slack-jawed and even Ojayi had his eyebrow raised.

No one had ever seen Marco bleed.

Until now.

()

The next sunrise, the news spread over the city as there were a few civilians eavesdropping on the fight.

Not to mention that seeing Marco with a bandage on his neck was quite the sight. He had quite the embarrassing walk to the infirmary as he carried an unconscious Ace.

After all, as far as Doctor Kureha was concerned,it was a love bite. Not even the shy Doctor apprentice Chopper believed him.

Marco sighed.

So much for a good day.

()

The realization that Marco may finally have a partner was met with mixed reactions from his family.

Izo and Thatch were glad. Jozu didn't care. Fossa was making his siblings pay up. Kingdew and Vista bemoaned the loss of their bet. Curiel was too busy pining for a stable boy.

Haruta seemed to be the only one concerned. As much as she loathed to think of it,she enjoyed Marco's attention as the youngest. With a new love interest,this would surely change.

Thatch used to give her all the attention until he fell in love with Izo. Of course, being brothers, they pined at each other until the family intervened and got them together.

Ever since,Thatch cut down on his pranks and time spent with Haruta. Haruta never did complain. Their happiness came first.

Marco noticed her loneliness and was there when Thatch wasn't and joined occasionally in pranking the family.

And Marco had a potential lover now. What if it didn't work out? Won't Marco outlive this Ace?  
Some many questions, few answers.

Haruta knew Ace was hiding something, her empathy magic was never wrong.

She didn't want Marco to give his heart away, less alone to a person with dark secrets.

In the infirmary, Ace slept on, unaware of events occurring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Ahem, I hope I haven't driven some of you off with my corny poetry. :-|(TT)
> 
> So, this could be a platonic Marco/Ace or a romantic one. The issue that's been bugging me for weeks is Stockholm Syndrome. 
> 
> I don't want the romance to feel forced or something like that. 
> 
> So please lemme know in the comments your views. Romantic or platonic? And your reason for each. 
> 
> Personally, I'd go for platonic but at the same time there's obviously some chemistry between the characters!!
> 
> Ugh, I'm so confused!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So Ace wakes up.

Ace woke up. His mind was groggy, and memory hazy as he had been put on a lot of medication.

He wondered where he was. A part of him wanted to go back to sleep, but his instincts were demanding answers.

Like an avalanche, the memories came crashing down. The fight...The Phoenix... Whitebeard.

And then he began to trash wildly but the cuffs that held him to the bed, restrained him.

Ace belatedly realized that he was in the infirmary.  
It had white washed walls and ceilings. The Whiteboard family crest was proudly displayed on the wall to his right. The chairs by the beds were old and worn with use but ever so sturdy.

By his left were other beds,all empty. It displeased Ace to no end that he wasn't able to seriously injure anyone.

Calling his inner fire dragon, Ace sent fire tendrils around the Moby Dick Castle, searching for potential dangers, threats and escape routes.

Servants and members of the WhiteBeard family were unsurprisingly spooked by the dragon shaped fire flying through the castle.

Thanks to the tendrils, Ace now knew the castle like the back of his own hand. He also knew perfect places to plan his assassination. 

The only problem was the cuffs chaining him to the bed. It had some sort of inhibiting magic that prevented him from using his offensive fire attacks. 

As he thought of possible escape routes, he didn't notice when Doctor Kureha came in, checked him over, gave Marco the signal to come in. His thoughts were still drifting when Marco had began speaking to him. 

It took him a while before he realized that he was being spoken to so all he could utter was, "What?"

To which Marco, replied,  
"-what I am trying to say is, according to the prophesy, you're the bride."

"Yeah and I am the Pirate King!" Ace scoffed. 

"Listen, we can discuss this like good mature adults-"

"Not when you kidnapped me!"

"Oyaji wants you as his son-"

"Over my dead body-"

"Listen, brat-"

"I'm not a brat, you old pineapple!"

Marco groaned in frustration. This conversation wasn't going anywhere. It was almost as though Ace wasn't listening half the time.

"Okay, what do you want from us, Ace?"

"I should be asking you that question, pineapple head." Ace said defensively. Did they know about his father? He knew Garp would carry the secret to his grave as well as Dadan, Makino and Luffy. But had someone found out?

Schooling his features, he prepared for the worst, if they were going to use him to get to Raftel, he rather just be executed. He had gone with Garp to Raftel when he was younger. A three-day excruciating journey. The goddamn gates didn't open. He tried everything from blood to magic, nothing had worked.   
Either way, Ace wasn't believing the whole bride bullshit. He was certain that Marco was just messing with him, probably trying to get his guard down by beating round the bush. There were rumours that there was someone in the Whitebeard family that could read minds. Ace wasn't going to let his guard down.

Marco saw the visible tensing of the brat and sighed. His plans were going to hell. Honestly, Marco was more concerned with how Ace was able to injure him. That should only be possible with fire Dragon magic. And the last user of fire Dragon magic had been executed and died childless. Dragon magic was inborn, hence the   
D. initial. 

But then Marco thought, who said that magic was predictable? The more one learns, the more one realizes the more that one does not know. 

Ace interrupted his pondering as he said,  
"I can't join your family because I will take Whitebeard's head!"

"You're a hundred years early. Don't you have anything else better to do? Anything you want to do?"

Ace really didn't care much about his life. He had fought opponents and gotten weary with every win. There was nothing else exciting except to defeat the strongest.

To be the strongest.

So that Garp, Makino, Dadan and Luffy won't be scared anymore.

If he was stronger, Sabo wouldn't have... Sabo couldn't have...

Ace sealed those thoughts tight and tunes right back in to Marco speaking.

"-going to give you time to think about it. An alliance with us has many benefits. Once you're discharged, you're free to return home."

"Huh?"

"I said, you can go home-"

"I heard that, why are you letting me off the hook so easily? I attempted to kill your father!"

"And you failed to. So?"

"Ha?"

Ace was confused and was certain that Marco must have a few loose screws somewhere. Just as he was about to voice that particular train of thought, his stomach grumbled with a vengeance.

"Someone is hungry."

"No shit, Sherlock."

Marco made a gesture and a servant came hurrying with food on a large tray, enough to feed ten full grown healthy men.

Ace decided that if he was going to die by poisoned food, this was the way to go. The food tasted heavenly as he dug in. 

If tears were falling down his face, Marco made no mention of it as he left, leaving Ace to his thoughts.


	4. Chapter 4

Turns out that due to the amount of injuries he sustained, Ace was to spend a month in the castle.

The good news was that he could walk around, the bad news was the look that Doctor Chopper gave him after every failed assassination attempt. 

Just because Ace was recovering wasn't reason enough to stop him from fighting the strongest man in the world. 

Said strongest man, AKA Ojayi, Pops, Whitebeard, Edward Newgate, simply flung Ace like a frisbee and smirked.

Even though he was the strongest man in the world, he wasn't immune to Chopper's watery puppy dog eyes.

Chopper's crying form led him to reduce the intensity of his attacks.

And Newgate simply stopped goading the kid with his smirk. It was hard work. Anyone worth their salt (and strength) would say Ace was fun to tease.

And such was the beginning of "ordinary" days in the castle.

 

-X-

 

"Maybe if you're not so pathetically weak, I wouldn't have to go easy on you. I can't in all good conscience go all out on you. It doesn't even constitute a warm-up." Marco said as he walked away from Ace.

A snarl was all he got in response. 

Marco and Ace had taking to sparring in the training grounds that was separated from the castle to avoid unnecessary casualties and an emergency route to the medical ward. 

Needless to say, Ace wasn't winning. But Marco couldn't deny he was one hell of strong brat. It was refreshing to say the least.

"Try to hone your weaknesses and stop relying on strength alone." Marco scolded the raging teen.

"Even at that, you are a hundred centuries early to defeat Pops."

And with a laughter that resounded in Ace's ears, Marco walked away.

 

~

 

"Wasn't that a bit too harsh, Marco?" Thatch asked as Marco stepped in the castle's grounds. 

"Was it now?"

"Yeah it definitely was."

"So, is this a lovers' quarrel gone out of hand? Possible unresolved tension that needs to let loose?" Thatch smirked.

Marco could only groan in response. So much for thinking Thatch was on his side. 

Looking at Thatch running to attend the kid whose fire got out of control, Marco knew that Ace would fit in no time.


	5. The Dilemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace and Marco's reactions. Warnings for dark thoughts. And corny poetry.

  
_()_  
_Once upon a time, there lived a boy._  
_Angry at the world he was._  
_Wished he was never born, the world._

_Hated his father he did._  
_Inadvertently, for the blood Roger spilled._  
_And himself, for the mother killed._  
  
_For Raftel was no fairy tale._  
_Real indeed, it was._

_Everyone and even the angry little boy thought himself cursed, happiness can never be his._

_Or so thought he._  
  
_()_

  
"I knew you could find happiness." The old lady who always gave Ace and brothers generous helping of free food, said.

Ace had _finally_... finally made a full recovery and just been discharged from The Witch Doctor™. He went into town to get food from the old lady he'd known for years. Apparently, his family and community had been waiting for him to come out of the castle. Ace had no idea.

_(Maybe he would have if he stopped half-listening to Marco.)_

Makino was already dragging him off for fittings. Every one was happy for the firecracker. The news of the engagement had spread round the kingdom.

Even Garp, stony as he was excited. Luffy, who was training with Rayleigh sent his congrats from Shakky.  
Dadan was doing a bad job of pretending to be indifferent.

Ace was surrounded by the people who had watched him grow up. He saw their happily smiles and faces. Brash, quick and fiery tempered, Ace wasn't a person who would hurt those he loved.

Ace suddenly realized that he didn't have the heart to tell them that he was calling off the engagement. That it wasn't a choice of his.

This was the happiest he had ever seen them. Gone from their eyes, were the looks of pity or guilt anytime they saw him and now replaced with mirth and peace.

It was a PR miracle.

It seems that his assassination attempt was called a friendly spar between father-in-law to-be and son-in-law to-be.

That was what the citizens believed. That was what his family and community believed.

And...

Their happiness came first.

Their happiness had to come first.

Makino, Dadan, Garp had fed him, clothed him, let him live when the world screamed his death. He couldn't be ungrateful now. He couldn't afford to crush their hopes and dreams. He, in all good conscience, could not.

Ace had to stick with this engagement.

He had endured worse after all.

**Marco's POV**

Marco was sticking with this engagement.

Ace, despite his bandit status, had noble origins. He was from the Monkey Family, grandson of Monkey D. Garp, adviser to the late Great King Gol D. Roger.

Politically speaking this was perfect. A perfect way to mock the Goursei, an enemy country. Plus it would give the dissenters proof that the Great King, Gol D. Roger wasn't forgotten.

Perfect. Marco had no qualms about arranged marriages. He would do anything to keep the kingdom safe. To make his family happy.

Perfect on all sides. All Marco had to do was to make sure the brat, Ace didn't kill Ojayi and argeed to the engagement. (And make sure that he and Ace were at least very good friends. They did have a lot in common after all.)

That was easier said than done.

Marco decided that he had to get through this. The happiness of his family and the peace of the people came first.

It had to come first.

Ojayi found him as a broken slave, fed him, clothed him and healed him, gave him a home and a family, let him dream about things he had thought impossible.

He could not, in all good conscience, make his adoptive father and family worry. Everything was fine. Nothing was amiss.

Marco had perfected his fake smiles to the point nobody could tell the difference between it and a real smile anymore. Not even Haruta with her empathy magic.

Nothing was amiss. The wedding will go as planned. He will make sure of it.

This challenge was nothing.

He had endured worse after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahem, I hope I haven't driven some of you off with my corny poetry. :-|(TT)
> 
> Have your viewpoints on their relationship changed after reading this chapter? 
> 
> Please lemme know. 
> 
> Anyways, I am struggling with a problem. I don't want and I don't like stories that infer that in order to be happy you must have romance. You need that special someone.
> 
> Or that you need romance to get a special kind of happiness.
> 
> I hate it. I also don't want my fic to reflect that. So hence a dilemma. 
> 
> So that's my reason for a platonic Marco/Ace. Or a very muted romantic one. Take your pick. 
> 
> So sorry, Marco Ace Fans! With a squint, you should be able to ship!!!! And I would probably write a romantic scene without meaning to.
> 
> (What the hell am I saying??? I do that all the freaking time!!!! Have you read my oneshots??? MarcoAce is my OTP!!! I'm more worried that I'll just ruin the chemistry, write cheesy romance... The horror!!)(+_+)(TT)(TT)
> 
> Muted romance, folks.
> 
> Anyways...
> 
> This is honestly to God,is supposed to be a light hearted fic. When did it get so dark?
> 
> Oh, wait, it is just reflecting my mood. 
> 
> Anyways, please lemme know your opinions!!!!
> 
> ~FallingStarlight


	6. The Demon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ace reassesses his opinions on the WB family.
> 
> Warnings for slut-shaming and graphic description of violence. And a ranting Haruta.

"I heard they're the whores. They'll sleep with anyone who would have them. No dick too small, no pussy too thick."

"Damn, I would have joined the family, but I'm pretty sure that the most of the females are off limits."

"Yeah, they reserve the best for that Man. All those sexy nurses just for one old guy. Life's a bitch men."

"You can say that again." Haruta chipped in.

All the colour drained out their faces as the nameless street thugs saw who spoke, needless to say, they had began running for their lives. Haruta had earned the nickname, "Blood demon" on the streets for a reason. The rascals however, never stood a chance as Ace's fire tendrills held them in.

"Not so fast, fellas." Ace said as the fire sunk into their flesh, burning them. 

And then he let go and the rascals saw an opening to attack Ace who was covered in bandages and possibly hold him hostage.

Wrong move.

Haruta moved so fast it was a blur to the human eye. In less than a nanosecond, blood spilled from the necks of the rascals as she attacked their arteries with a small but extremely sharp blade.

Haruta was determined to finish the job that she started but she was stopped by Ace. Ace knew and understood her fury but she was no longer the "Blood demon", she was just Haruta. 

He wanted her to understand that their blood was not worth staining her blade. 

After a few calming breaths and then as they walked away, Haruta began to speak.

"I never asked if you were okay with this."

"With what?"

"The whole polyamory thing with our family."

"I'm fine with it."

"Even with Marco?"

"What does this have to do with him? Even so, I'm fine with it."

Honestly, it's nothing compared to what he was expecting; their true colors. It's nothing compared to his own secret. He had prepared to see politics and mind games and backstabbing instead he was met with a loving family that was fiercely loyal and protective of their own.

"Ace, it's fine. If you don't like it, you should say do. I'm not gonna kill ya."

"It's fine, really."

Haruta began talking as she she held her blade tighter.

"I know, who they were referring to. Kingdew, Fossa and Rakayo really really love each other. It's much easier for them to flow and flirt with everyone instead. Because if they don't, they'd have to face their feelings, romance and all. So we've sort of pretended to not notice, till they're comfortable enough talking about it."

"Just because you say you're not in a relationship doesn't mean you aren't and just because you say you are doesn't mean you're. Some people need labels and that's fine, but for some, labels freak them out; they think they have to behave a certain way to match that label and when they don't, they feel lost and start searching for another label. Labels are meant to guide, not restrict or make you a freak." Haruta said in an angry rant.

"I just hate these assholes who don't know shit about our family and say horrible things behind our back. Scumbags." She said as she spat at the unconscious pile of bodies far behind them.

Haruta had no idea how menacing she looked, with her stained clothes, blood dripping down her chin and her eyes which promised pain.

Ace stepped back a little. Who the fuck was he kidding? Overprotective brothers? 

If there's anyone who's overprotective, it's Haruta.


	7. The Declaration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Crack chappie. Mentions of orgies, polyamory and marriage proposals. 
> 
> And fluff h/c
> 
>  
> 
> Don't say I didn't warn ya.

Ace realized that Haruta's fingers were still shaking.

In anger, not fear.

Hoping to distract her, he said, "So any photos of a drunken Marco in any sex escapades?"

It worked as Haruta laughed out loud.

"Ace-chan, the only embarrassing photos of Marco is with you, dearie. I'll have you know that Marco-chan is a responsible old man."

Ace successfully managed to keep his blush under control as he found his voice to speak.

"He never joined?"

"Actually, he did, when it was just us, but as soon as Pops became King and as we grew larger, he started distancing himself from us. Always holed up in paper work, politics and other people." Haruta said with a sigh.

Another distraction was needed.

"Oh I see. Any other funny thing that I should know?"

"Don't buy Vista a knife even if you see him with an empty sheath on his girdle. Unless you want to ask for his hand in marriage of course."

"Ha?"

"It's a symbolic gesture where he's from."

"Oh. Okay."

"Well, at the time, we didn't know that. So imagine one day during the family dinner, when a diplomat from Mariejois gave him a knife for the empty sheath? Vista turned a nice shade of pink.  
Boy, were we surprised! Vista never blushes! Marco, being the responsible one had a private talk with Vista." 

Haruta was grinning from ear to ear as she continued, "Anyways, we all find out that Vista really thinks the diplomat was serious, but Marco knew the man simply wanted to use Vista. Boy, were we stuck"

Ace felt hot white rage burn inside him on Vista's behalf. Suppressing his anger, he grut out, "You all could have gone to Vista and explained the situation."

"Yeah, but that was a problem - Vista had a crush on the diplomat at the time. There was no way we could tell him that his crush was a manipulating, two-timing, theiving, dishonest son of a bitch."

"What did you all do? What did Marco do?"

"Distracted Vista and then "took care" of the diplomat."

(It caused political tensions but they didn't care.)

"Then Marco proposed to Vista."

"What? " Ace was not feeling any jealousy, whatsoever, nope, no siree. Haruta didn't notice Ace's distress as she continued.

"Not to be outdone by Marco, Thatch proposed, then Curiel,then Izo,then Fossa, Jozu, Rakayo and even I included."

"Why?"

"To make Vista understand that he's loved in ever sense of the word. To understand that even if the diplomat was planning on using him. We all proposed because we can live with him for the rest of our lives. That is what it means to be a family. To be part of the Whitebeard family."

Something warm floated in Ace's chest. People who would stick with you no matter what. Equals that you didn't have to worry about their strength in life's battles. People who understood you without saying a word. 

And if Haruta saw warm liquid on Ace's face, she said nothing as she rambled all the way home.


End file.
